Former Trump campaign adviser Rick Gates is finalizing a plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller’s office, indicating he’s poised to cooperate in the investigation, according to sources familiar with the case.

Gates has already spoken to Mueller’s team about his case and has been in plea negotiations for about a month. He’s had what criminal lawyers call a “Queen for a Day” interview, in which a defendant answers any questions from the prosecutors’ team, including about his own case and other potential criminal activity he witnessed.

Gates’ cooperation could be another building block for Mueller in a possible case against President Donald Trump or key members of his team.

Once a plea deal is in place, Gates would become the third known cooperator in Mueller’s sprawling probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. It would also increase the pressure to cooperate on Gates’ co-defendant Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, who has pleaded not guilty to Mueller’s indictment and is preparing for a trial on alleged financial crimes unrelated to the campaign. Gates pleaded not guilty on October 30 alongside Manafort.

“Nobody (who’s charged) goes in to provide incriminating information to the government unless it’s part of plea negotiations,” said a criminal defense attorney who represents a witness in the case. In a Queen for a Day interview, a defendant can typically admit to crimes with little additional consequences, unless he or she lies.

Sharyl Attkisson, who believes that when she was a CBS reporter she was spied on by the U.S. government, finds it incredible that journalists don’t seem to care about the alleged abuse of the FISA system that led the government to spy on Carter Page.

“I’ve never in my lifetime seen open-government groups and journalists so uncurious and begging not to be told about alleged violations of citizens’ rights,” she said.

That’s because everything is all screwed up, see? We had a nice story going, see? It’s about Donald Trump and his collusion with the Russians, and if not, about his efforts to obstruct justice. See what I mean? THAT’S THE STORY DAMMIT BECAUSE TRUMP IS EVIL AND SO THAT’S THE STORY.

But whoa what’s this? The only evidence emerging of collusion with the Russians seems to involve Hillary Clinton. And now it appears that the Obama State Department, the FBI, the Clinton campaign, and even Obama himself may have colluded to dig up dirt on Trump and his campaign.

BUT THAT’S NOT THE STORY WE’RE DOING HERE, OKAY?

And please, don’t bring Obama into this. He would never do anything dishonest. He draws a red line against that sort of stuff.

According to Fox News: Newly revealed text messages between FBI paramours Peter Strzok and Lisa Page include an exchange about preparing talking points for then-FBI Director James Comey to give to President Obama, who wanted “to know everything we’re doing.” The message, from Page to Strzok, was among thousands of texts between the lovers reviewed… Continue Reading

From the New York Times: Lawyers for President Trump have advised him against sitting down for a wide-ranging interview with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, according to four people briefed on the matter, raising the specter of a monthslong court battle over whether the president must answer questions under oath. His lawyers are… Continue Reading

I’ve always hated that term. Democrats and their allies in the press are trying to apply it to the Republican Intelligence Committee memo that demonstrated that an absurd piece of Russian propaganda financed by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC, the Steele Dossier, was used to justify U.S. government spying via FISA on a… Continue Reading

President Trump today allowed the release of the entire Republican memo alleging that the federal investigators used an unverified dossier of information to launch a probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. Trump requested no redactions. Here is the memo to read in its entirety. It says that former Deputy FBI… Continue Reading

President Trump Friday took to Twitter to castigate the FBI and Department of Justice leadership for allowing political bias to mar their investigations, suggesting with a retweet that he agreed with a conclusion that the Obama administration had spied on the “Trump team.” Trump made the allegations as he prepared to permit the release, possibly… Continue Reading

From Paul Bedard at the Washington Examiner: in a new and potentially explosive revelation, the two pro-Clinton, anti-Trump officials at the center of a growing scandal at the agency were eager to “get around” rules requiring the preservation of their phone texts and even sought to get different phones that would make that easier. What’s… Continue Reading

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders Monday batted away Russia investigation questions by making the point that she has answered the same queries many times, even if asked different ways, and that average people don’t care about the issue. Here are a couple of exchanges from Monday’s briefing. The polls bear her out. Relative to… Continue Reading

The House Intelligence Committee Monday voted along party lines to release a secret memo that is said to show that the FBI abused its power in ordering the surveillance of at least one former Trump campaign associate, Carter Page. President Trump now has to decide if the memo should be released. The White House has… Continue Reading

CNN reporter Maeve Reston said Sunday that while CNN focuses relentlessly on the Russia investigation, voters actually don’t care about it, and it doesn’t appear to be casting a cloud over President Trump or having an effect on the 2018 House races. Moreover, she notes that “uneasiness about the economy” has begun to dissipate. Of… Continue Reading

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